Footballhead at the Raccoon Motel -- August 24.
Saturday, August 24, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
With their 2024 album Overthinking Everything lauded by Paste magazine as "a thrill-seeking debut and "a heart-pounding riptide," the Chicago-based musicians of Footballhead headline an August 24 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, their first LP also praised by The Indy Review as "a fantastic collection of tracks that artfully blend genres and sounds, satisfying the elusive alt-rock itch that can be hard to scratch in today's landscape."
As described at KMGMT.com, "Footballhead is a Chicago-based alternative rock band headed by Ryan Nolen. At its heart, the band is a vessel to toil forward through internal and external insecurity. It also serves the unrelenting spirit of new-millennium Midwestern youth, with MTV and skatepark dreams in the core of their memories. By blending pop structures with alt and emo sounds, Footballhead channels the frantic, dramatic, and anthemic to map the pressure points of existence. It’s outcast music, revitalized in search of a modern, blissful awakening.
"Nolen was a skate kid from the western Chicago suburbs; the one who only kicked it with older neighborhood kids. The punkish attitude of late-'90s and early-aughts' alt-rock galvanized Nolen, from the infectiously fun music down to the fashion. A teenage relocation to Palm Springs, California, coincided with Nolen inundating himself with all the music he could: Warped Tour, 411 videos, Limewire, and the like. The Footballhead ethos comes from this comfort zone of pop impulses and raucous energy, carried by a DIY spirit that grants Nolen the autonomy to facilitate honesty and reflection.
“Joined by Snow Ellet, Adam Siska, Liam Burns, and Robby Kuntz, Footballhead crafts supercharged rock songs like brief, open secrets. However weathered one is from their struggles and mistakes, this music offers unbridled fun as a reprieve, and salves for the shaken. These are your old friends inviting you in to commiserate, elevate, and believe."
In addition to touring in support of Overthinking Everything, Footballhead is currently on the road promoting their even-more-recent recording Tiny Engines, a collection of seven songs that premiered mere days ago. In his rave review for Punk Rock Theory, Tom Dumaery stated, "Just like on the band’s debut, things sound amazing. All of the songs come with a sense of instant familiarity, and the band sounds like they have been effortlessly dishing out hits for years."
Footballhead headlines their Davenport engagement on August 24 with an opening set by G.M.G., admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $15.88, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
